Its certainly not everything but sadly as the game has evolved to be more physical, explosive attacks and countertopspins are more effective than blocks or fishing. The chinese have somehow "robotized" the game and their philosohpy is quite obvious: "If we can topspin and take the initiative to attack with power first, then whatever the opponent does, our probabilities of winning are higher"
In terms of serve receive 3rd ball, Jun would probably be one of the best in the world with the old rules, but in the last 10-15 years I think players like timo boll kong linqhui wang liqin wang hao and zhang jike have dominated the game, mostly because of their rallying abilities their serve and receive was quite simple and nothing special if you ask me. Same thing goes for liang jingkun and FZD and even the swedes have produced more power players, the two karlssons and kallberg for example
Of course the banana receive is a novelty but I think delicate touch players like ma long jun and niwa as you said , are maybe in disadvantage as the game has gone more physical. The last game between jun and dima is a perfect example, Jun totally dominated Dima with his serve played much smarter in the first 3 balls, but in the end Dima won and most of his points were topspin exchanges. No creativity, no instinct free play, no smart blocks to the body or down the line just brute force topspins. TT needs players like niwa or jun to give a different flavor to the game, matsudaira withs his crazy blocks is another example.
In the end I find it somehow boring if everybody produces topspin machines